Description: The project asked two main research questions: How do migration control policies affect the plans and actions of prospective (and actual) irregular migrants? and, why some policies are more successful than others?

In seeking to answer these questions, four empirical issues were addressed:

(a) how migrants make and change their plans despite legal restrictions at destination countries;

(b) which are the actors (national, local, transnational, state or non-state) that affect their decisions and actions;

(c) how do these actors affect the decision making of potential migrants, their plans and actions ;

(d) why specific actors are more effective than state policies in shaping migrants plans and decisions.

The empirical research undertaken in this project concentrated on three migration systems within which irregular migration is an important component of overall migration towards Greece:

  • Migration System 1.Balkans to EU migration system: Albania to Greece;
  • Migration System 2. Eastern Europe to EU migration system: Georgia and Ukraine to Greece;
  • Migration System 3. Southeast Asia to EU migration system Pakistan and Afghanistan to Greece.

Research Team: Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou, Dr Angeliki Dimitriadi, Dr Eda Gemi, Ms Michaela Maroufof and Ms Marina Nikolova.